North Korea is once again in the headlines, thanks to a sequence of aggressive, yet carefully calculated actions: another missile test; a nuclear weapons test in January of last year followed by a declaration that Pyongyang was exiting the 60-year-old Korean armistice; the sudden execution of the leader's uncle; and a constant, continuing stream of vituperative denunciations of South Korea and the United States. What does the North hope to accomplish with these acts? And how should the United States and its allies respond? Also, as North Korea's lifeline, how should China respond? Philip Yun, executive director and COO of the Ploughshares Fund, is well-equipped to answer these questions. Yun is a former high-level diplomat who has worked extensively in academia, business, nonprofits and government. Prior to joining Ploughshares Fund, he was a Pantech Scholar in Korean Studies at Stanford University. He met Kim Jong Il in October, 2000 as a part of the delegation that travelled to North Korea with Secretary of State Madeline Albright and was a member of a working group that managed US policy toward North Korea under President Clinton. Yun was as a senior advisor to the first US Coordinator for North Korea Policy, former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry.